{"id":596945,"date":"2026-08-18T10:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T10:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596945\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T10:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T10:50:17","slug":"its-official-earths-spin-is-slowing-down-heres-what-it-means-for-the-future-of-our-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596945\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s official \u2013\u00a0Earth’s spin is slowing down. Here’s what it means for the future of our planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

If modern life makes you feel as though the days are dragging on, science can offer you a little reassurance \u2013 they actually are getting longer.<\/p>\n

Earth\u2019s rotation is gradually slowing down, and as it does, the length of the day increases.<\/p>\n

Not enough to give you much more free time, but by tiny fractions of a second, spread across centuries.<\/p>\n

\"HowCredit: Joecicak \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Just how much is Earth slowing down by?<\/p>\n

The effect is extraordinarily subtle. Scientists estimate that Earth\u2019s day lengthens by around 1.7 milliseconds per century.<\/p>\n

That means a Tyrannosaurus rex 68 million years ago experienced a day about 20 minutes shorter than we do.<\/p>\n

Further back, during the Cambrian explosion 540 million years ago (when there was a huge expansion of new life forms), the days were only around 21 hours long.<\/p>\n

Of course, we\u2019re not going to really feel this small change \u2013 scientists need atomic clocks to keep track of such minute differences.<\/p>\n

But why is it happening? Well, mostly it\u2019s the Moon\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n

Blame it on the Moon
\n\"EarthCredit: photovideostock \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Moon\u2019s gravitational pull creates tides<\/a>, producing large bulges of water that are constantly moving as the planet rotates.<\/p>\n

Because Earth spins faster than the Moon orbits, those tidal bulges are dragged slightly ahead of the Moon.<\/p>\n

Gravity from the Moon then pulls back on them, acting like a brake on Earth\u2019s rotation.<\/p>\n

Slowing the rotation of Earth results in the Moon\u2019s orbit widening and speeding up to conserve the total momentum of the Earth\u2013Moon relationship.<\/p>\n

This means the Moon is moving away from us at a rate of about 3.8cm (1.5 inches) a year. As its orbital period increases, Earth\u2019s rotation slows down.<\/p>\n

The inside story
\n\"Earth'sCredit: Andrzej Wojcicki \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more to it than our relationship with the Moon. Movements within our dynamic planet also influence its rotation.<\/p>\n

Deep beneath the crust, the molten outer core constantly circulates, subtly redistributing mass inside the planet.<\/p>\n

Changes in atmospheric winds and ocean currents can also alter the speed of Earth\u2019s rotation by tiny amounts.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s evidence to suggest climate change is starting to play a part too. As glaciers melt, water moves from the poles to the ocean, slightly changing how Earth\u2019s mass is distributed.<\/p>\n

How scientists know Earth is slowing down
\n\"RadioRadio telescopes. Credit: Sharply Done \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

We work all this out by comparing the planet\u2019s spin against atomic time, which is defined using the consistent oscillations of caesium atoms.<\/p>\n

Atomic clocks are accurate enough to detect variations of less than a millisecond in the length of a day.<\/p>\n

By comparing Earth\u2019s actual rotation to this extremely stable standard, researchers can identify tiny fluctuations in how long the planet takes to complete a full rotation on its axis.<\/p>\n

To track orientation and rotational speed directly, scientists use techniques such as very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI), in which radio telescopes around the world observe distant quasars that appear fixed in space.<\/p>\n

Small differences in the arrival times of their radio signals at different telescopes reveal minuscule changes in Earth\u2019s rotation.<\/p>\n

Satellite laser ranging and lunar laser ranging, using mirrors (retroreflectors) placed on the Moon during the Apollo missions, provide additional measurements of Earth\u2019s motion and the Earth\u2013Moon system.<\/p>\n

Will it eventually stop?
\n\"WhyCredit: Cicero Castro \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Will Earth eventually stop spinning altogether?<\/p>\n

In theory, tidal forces could slow Earth to a point where one rotation of our planet and one orbit of the Moon takes the same amount of time, and one side permanently faces the Moon \u2013 a state known as tidal locking.<\/p>\n

But this process would take tens of billions of years, far longer than the remaining lifetime of the Sun.<\/p>\n

Long before Earth stopped spinning, our star will have evolved into a red giant, transforming the inner Solar System completely. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If modern life makes you feel as though the days are dragging on, science can offer you a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-596945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}